Tiger Woods confident of ending major drought after falling short at the Open

Shot of the day: Even 14-time major winners have to get down and dirty sometimes. Tiger Woods got on to all fours to escape a bunker at the sixth, en route to his first triple-bogey at a major in nine years Getty Images

Tiger Woods continued his climb up the world rankings after finishing joint third in The Open, but what he is really interested in is adding to his tally of 14 majors.

The American, who moved up to second just behind England's Luke Donald, briefly threatened to make a challenge on the final day.

However, the closest he got to overnight leader Adam Scott - before his dramatic late collapse to hand victory to Ernie Els - was four shots after five holes.

From there it began to unravel with a triple-bogey seven at the sixth when he found trouble in a greenside bunker, and when he had to chase he got caught out.

Woods has not won a major since 2008 but insists it is not a worry.

"It's part of golf. We all go through these phases - some people it lasts entire careers, others are a little bit shorter," he said.

"Even the greatest players to ever play have all gone through little stretches like this.

"When your playing careers last 40 and 50 years you're going to have stretches like this.

"I was right there, the game plan was to shoot under par going out so I was in position to do what I wanted to do and then turn home and shoot maybe one or two under on the back nine.

"I would have posted an eight or nine under par and I thought that was going to be the number to win the golf tournament.

"Unfortunately I just didn't do it."

Woods had some sympathy for Scott after his late collapse as his bid for a first major ended in failure.

"It's happened to all of us at one point or another," he added.

"We've all been in positions to win golf tournaments and sometimes people go ahead and win them and take them away from you, other times we make mistakes.

"That's just the way it goes."

Donald takes pride in his number one ranking but remains desperate to win at least one major.

"It's nice being number one, I'll continue to work hard on my game and try and produce good results," said the Englishman, who won the money lists on both sides of the Atlantic last year.

"World rankings are a little bit more about consistency and I've probably been the most consistent player over the year.

"But I think it would be fantastic to win one (a major) here.

"Even being somewhat in contention, having the crowd really behind me walking down 18, is a special feeling.

"I can only imagine what that would be like with a one-shot lead - and hopefully I'll have that opportunity one day."